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Abecassis, Brooklands, 1938 © GPLOnce the car was in the late Graham Gallier’s hands the 2-litre enginewas sold on to the then owner of Alta sports car EJJ 703 (anotherillustrious ex Abecassis Alta) which was where this engine started lifeprior to being fitted to EOY 8. Graham considering it best for the engineto return to its rightful car and embarked on a money no object remanufactureof the single seaters engine. At the same time the cars ENV110 pre-selector gearbox was found to be very tired, Cecil Schumacherthe countries foremost pre-selector specialist was engaged to rebuild it,again a money no object approach was taken and this was rebuilt at acost of £17,000 (bills on file).We understand that the car’s chassis frame had deteriorated beyondsafe further use, and that after Graham acquired the car from formerowner Richard Last in 2004 (at a cost of £105,000) he had the framerebuilt with new main longitudinal sections being united by what arebelieved to be still the original cross members. The original longitudinalsections are offered with the lot.Denis Jenkinson in 1947 described this Alta’s structure as follows: “...the chassis was channel section...and the ends of the frame were joinedby a pair of large-diameter tubes, one above the other, which extendedout to the wheels and carried the suspension units, which consistedof vertical sliders with coil springs above and below controlling themovement, an outstanding feature being that no shock absorbers wererequired. At the rear two sets of sliders were used on either side of thedrive passing between them, from universally-jointed shafts taking thedrive from the differential unit which was bolted to the chassis.“The engine was a 4-cylinder, 69 x 100mm in the case of the 1,496cccars and 79 x 100mm in the 1996cc car. The whole engine was ofaluminium, with steel liners, cast in pairs, sitting in the one-piece blockcum-crankcase.Aluminium-bronze valve seats were screwed into thelight-alloy head and two valves, situated at 68 deg. To one another,were used, with a single sparking plug mounted between them andinclined forward at an angle of 24deg. Two overhead camshafts weredriven by a single roller-chain... A Roots-type supercharger mounted atthe front of the engine and driven at 1 ½ times engine speed, suppliedmixture from an SU carburettor at 22lbs sq/in which with an 8.5:1compression ratio was claimed to give over 200bhp for the 1 ½-litreand 275bhp for the 2-litre, both at 5,800rpm...”The restoration of the car has reached the point of approximately60% completed and was ongoing at the time of Graham’s death, assuch it is sold strictly as viewed. We can report that the engine fittedto the car just before this Sale is freshly built by well-known marqueexpert Derek Chinn at a cost of circa £100,000 and has been testedon respected specialist Chris Connolly’s dyno in Cambridgeshire...producing a lusty 250bhp (power curves on file). Mounted in such acomparatively compact, lightweight and historically better than wellprovensingle-seat chassis, the potentially highly competitive natureof this illustrious icon of British motor racing history is self-evident. Weheartily commend it to the market.£100,000 - 150,000€120,000 - 180,000Motor Cars | 93